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ADDRESS 

AT  THE    CELEBRATION 

OF    THE 

TWO  HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

Cije  SuflDfog  of  tf>e  ©ID  iHeettng^ouse 

AT    HINGHAM. 
On  the  Eighth  of  August,   1881. 


by 


CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 
JOHN    WILSON    AND    SON. 

SEtotowsitg  Press. 
1882. 


1  & 

ADDRESS 


AT  THE   CELEBRATION 

OF    THE 

TWO    HUNDREDTH    ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

Cl)e  Eutltimg  of  ti)e  €>to  jmeettng^ouse 

AT    HINGHAM. 
On  the  Eighth  of  August,   1881. 

by 
CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

JOHN     WILSON     AND     SON. 

(Smtasttg  |3t£ss. 

1882. 


ADDRESS. 


Mr.  Chairman,  Reverend  Sir,1  Your  Excellency, 

Men  and  Women  of  Hingham :  — 

You  have  thought  it  becoming  to  commemorate 
the  building  of  this  old  Meeting-house  on  its  two 
hundredth  anniversary.  You  have  chosen  me,  as 
the  lineal  descendant  of  the  minister  settled  over 
this  parish  when  the  Meeting-house  was  built,  whose 
voice  was  the  first  to  ask  the  blessing  of  God  within 
these  walls,  and  who  for  many  years,  Sabbath  after 
Sabbath,  here  taught  the  people  of  the  ways  of  the 
Lord, —  you  have  chosen  me,  his  descendant,  to 
give  expression  to  the  thought  and  sentiment  nat- 
ural on  such  an  occasion  as  this.  I  undertake  the 
duty,  to  which  you  have  called  me,  in  a  spirit  of 
filial  piety.  Five  generations  of  my  forefathers 
united  with  your  ancestors  in  worship  under  this 
roof.  I  see  around  me  the  descendants  of  those 
who  listened  to  the  first  sermon  heard  from  the 
ancient  pulpit.  The  names  of  Hobart,  Lincoln, 
Thaxter,  Beal,  Cushing,  Fearing,  Loring,  Hersey, 
Whiton,  Sprague,  attest  the  permanence  of  the 
families  of  the  early  settlers,  and  the  continuity  of 
the  life  of  the  town,  while  they  bear  honorable  wit- 
ness to  the  excellence  of  the  stock  planted  here. 

1  Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln. 


I  shall  be  easily  pardoned  if  to-day  I  recall  a  his- 
tory familiar  and  dear  to  many  of  you. 

No  building  in  the  United  States  is  more  vener- 
able than  this  within  which  we  are  met.  Of  all 
edifices  an  ancient  church  is  the  most  reverend. 
This  is  the  house  of  worship  in  which  the  weekly 
service  of  prayer  and  preaching  has  been  for  a 
longer  time  continuous  than  in  any  other  in  New 
England,  —  probably  than  in  any  other  in  the  United 
States.  For  us,  in  this  still  new  world,  its  age  is 
great.  But  our  antiquities  are  modern  as  compared 
with  those  of  our  Mother-country ;  the  oldest  of 
them  are  of  to-day  in  comparison  with  the  Pyra- 
mids ;  they  are  novelties  in  the  eternity  of  Nature. 
But  the  two  centuries  during  which  this  house  has 
existed  are  the  longest  centuries  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  for  in  their  course  man  has  made  greater 
progress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  world  in  which 
he  lives,  and  consequently  in  power  over  it,  than 
in  all  preceding  time.  His  relations  to  Nature 
have  changed.  He  has  come  into  possession  of 
new  faculties.  His  thoughts  have  widened.  The 
denizen  of  a  parish  two  hundred  years  ago,  the 
intelligent  man  is  to-day  the  citizen  of  the  world. 
Spiritually  measured  this  little  span  of  time  is  longer 
than  cycles  of  Egypt  or  Cathay.  To  the  imagina- 
tion this  Meeting-house  is  the  monument  of  a  great 
antiquity. 

But  it  has  more  than  the  interest  of  mere  age. 
Like  all  the  works  of  the  hand  of  man,  it  tells  the 


story  of  its  times.  It  is  the  expression  of  the  moral 
convictions  and  material  conditions  of  the  men  who 
built  it.  Here  is  no  fine  art.  No  touch  of  beauty 
is  visible  here ;  no  faith  is  here  nobly  realized  in 
imperishable  form  ;  no  ideals  of  life  are  displayed 
here  in  dedicated  shapes  of  prophets,  saints,  and 
kings ;  no  aspirations  are  manifest  in  lavish  wealth 
of  consecrated  ornament ;  no  sentiment  of  pious  ar- 
dor finds  utterance  in  sacred  symbols.  All  is  plain, 
bare,  homely,  unadorned,  the  work  of  an  ascetic 
race.  The  fancy  can  hardly  find,  in  this  rough  tim- 
ber frame,  a  type  of  the  temple  of  the  Holy  City, 
with  its  gold  and  silver  and  iron  and  brass  and 
purple  and  crimson  and  blue ;  or  recognize,  in  the 
builders  with  plank  and  shingle,  a  community  of 
spirit  with  those  who  wrought  miracles  of  stone  in 
mediaeval  church  and  cathedral.  No,  this  is  the 
poor  Meeting-house  of  a  poor  people,  of  a  people 
moreover,  to  whom  the  adornment  of  the  church 
and  the  pomp  of  ritual  were  an  abomination,  and 
who  rejected  all  the  imagery  of  earlier  ages  of  piety, 
even  the  deepest  and  tenderest  symbols  of  the  faith, 
because  associated  with  superstition  and  confounded 
with  idolatry.  To  them  this  plain  house,  their 
Bethel,  was  more  truly  the  Gate  of  Heaven  than  if 
it  had  been  a  pearl  like  the  gates  of  the  New  Jeru- 
salem ;  and  they  trusted  that  the  promise  made  by 
Jehovah  to  Solomon  held  good  also  for  them : 
"  Mine  ear  shall  be  attent  unto  the  prayer  that  is 
made  in  this  place." 


I  know  not  if  the  legend  be  well  attested,  but 
you  are  familiar  with  the  tradition  that  the  little 
band  of  the  first  settlers  of  Hingham,  on  their  land- 
ing here  in  1635,  led  by  the  father  and  first  minis- 
ter of  the  town,  the  valiant  Peter  Hobart,  gathered 
round  their  pastor  under  an  old  oak,  to  join  with 
him  in  asking  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  on  their 
new  planting  in  the  wilderness.  Within  a  few 
months  they  had  a  house  built  for  public  worship. 
It  was  the  central  house  of  the  little  village,  the 
common  refuge  in  times  of  spiritual  stress  or  mate- 
rial peril.  In  1645,  at  the  time  of  alarm  lest  the 
Narragansetts  should  break  out  in  war  against  the 
colonists,  it  was  voted  to  erect  a  palisade  around 
the  Meeting-house,  "  to  prevent  any  danger  that  may 
come  unto  this  town  by  any  assault  of  the  Indians." 
To  that  house,  thus  protected,  the  forefathers  of  the 
town  came  to  worship  and  take  counsel  for  forty- 
five  years.  There,  for  forty-three  of  those  years, 
Peter  Hobart,  to  whom  Governor  Winthrop  bore 
testimony  that  "he  was  a  bold  man  and  would 
speak  his  mind,"  taught  his  people.  Age  brought 
its  usual  burdens  to  him,  but  his  heart  remained 
fresh,  and  in  his  last  days,  as  Cotton  Mather  re- 
ports, "  he  set  himself  with  great  fervour  to  gather 
the  children  of  his  church  under  the  saving  wings 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  order  thereunto 
preached  many  pungent  sermons  on  Ecclesiastes 
xi.  9,  10,  and  xii.  1."  Beautiful  is  the  picture  of 
the  venerable  man,  himself  the  father  of  many  chil- 


dren  whom  he  had  carefully  nurtured,1  worn  with 
the  infirmities  of  years,  and  weary  with  the  labors 
which  fell  to  those  who  had,  in  their  own  words, 
"transported  themselves,  with  their  wives,  their  lit- 
tle ones,  and  their  substance,  from  that  pleasant 
land  where  they  were  born,  over  the  Atlantic  ocean 
into  the  vast  wilderness,"  for  the  sake  of  "  liberty 
to  walk  in  the  faith  of  the  gospel  with  all  good 
conscience,"  —  beautiful  is  the  picture  of  the  old 
and  faithful  pastor,  death  now  near  at  hand,  look- 
ing with  benignant  eyes  on  the  younglings  of  his 
flock,  the  first  native-born  New  Englanders,  and 
appealing  to  them :  "  Remember  now  thy  Creator 
in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  while  the  evil  days  come 
not,  nor  the  years  draw  nigh  when  thou  shalt  say, 
I  have  no  pleasure  in  them." 

It  was  on  the  27th  of  November,  1678,  that  "  he  did 
with  his  aged  hand  ordain  a  successor,  which  when 
he  had  performed  with  much  solemnity  he  did  after- 
wards with  an  assembly  of  Ministers  and  other 
Christians  at  his  own  house,  joyfully  sing  the  song 
of  aged  Simeon,  Thy  servant  now  lettest  thou  de- 
part in  peace."  Less  than  eight  weeks  afterward 
he  died. 

That  successor  was  Mr.  John  Norton,  a  young 
man  twenty-seven  years  old,  who  had  received  as 
good  a  training  as  New  England  could  then  be- 
stow.    He  had  been  bred  under  the  shadow  of  the 

1  He  names  fifteen  children  in  his  will.  Five  of  his  sons  graduated  at 
Harvard  College,  and  four  of  them  became  ministers. 


8 


church.  Named  for  his  more  noted  uncle,  one  of 
the  four  famous  Johns  who  were  the  lights  of  the 
early  church  of  Boston,  he  had  derived  from  him 
a  taste  for  learning,  and  the  consecration  to  the 
ministry.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1 67 1,  in  the  last  class  sent  forth  by  the  pious  and 
learned  President  Chauncy ;  and  Sewall,  afterward 
Chief  Justice,  was  one  of  his  classmates.1  It  was 
a  distinction  then  to  graduate  at  Harvard.  It 
meant  being  one  of  the  clerical  or  magisterial 
order.  It  meant  the  possession  of  pre-eminent  ad- 
vantages. But  the  relation  of  the  clergy  to  the 
community  had  already  become  very  different  from 
what  it  had  been  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Colony. 
The  contrast  between  the  prominent  position  in 
public  affairs,  the  wide  and  strong  influence,  the 
admitted  authority  of  the  uncle,  and  the  tranquil, 
retired  life,  and  the  narrow  limits  of  influence  of  the 
nephew,  was  not  altogether  the  result  of  diversity 
of  opportunities  and  of  gifts.     It  affords  an  illustra- 

1  From  an  entry  in  Sewall's  Diary,  published  by  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  —  a  book  from  which  more  is  to  be  learned  than  from  any 
other  of  the  life  of  Boston  and  its  neighborhood  during  the  last  quarter  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth,  —  it  would  appear 
that  Mr.  Norton  had  grave  doubts  as  to  coming  into  the  Church.  "  Satterday, 
Mar.  3,  167%  went  to  Mr.  Norton  to  discourse  with  him  about  coming  into 
the  Church.  He  told  me  that  he  waited  to  see  whether  his  faith  were  of  the 
operation  of  God's  spirit,  and  yet  often  said  that  he  had  very  good  hope  of 
his  good  Estate  .  .  .  He  said,  was  unsettled,  had  thoughts  of  going  out  of 
the  country.  .  .  .  And  at  last,  that  he  was  for  that  way  which  was  purely 
Independent.  I  urged  what  that  was.  He  said  that  all  of  the  Church  were 
a  royal  Priesthood,  all  of  them  Prophets  and  taught  of  God's  Spirit,  and 
that  a  few  words  from  the  heart  were  worth  a  great  deal :  intimating  the 
Benefit  of  Brethren's  prophesying:  for  this  he  cited  Mr.  Dell.  I  could 
not  get  any  more."  It  is  not  certain  that  the  Mr.  Norton  with  whom  Sewall 
held  this  conversation  was  Mr.  John  Norton,  but  it  seems  probable. 


tion  of  the  general  fact  that  while  religion  had  been 
the  chief  motive  that  had  brought  the  colonists  to 
the  wilderness,  and  the  ministers  of  religion  had 
naturally  been  their  intellectual  and  often  their  civil 
leaders,  the  mere  growth  of  the  Commonwealth  they 
had  planted,  with  the  increase  of  social  and  politi- 
cal interests  and  responsibilities,  had  resulted  in 
the  diminution  of  the  preponderance  of  religious 
concerns  in  the  State,  as  well  as  of  the  authority  of 
the  clergy.  The  beginnings  of  civil  democracy  were 
weakening  the  hold  of  a  dominant  class.  There 
was  no  sudden  revolution,  but  a  gradual  and  stead- 
ily increasing,  though  as  yet  hardly  recognized,  de- 
cline in  the  position  and  power  of  the  ministers. 
As  a  class  they  still  exercised  authority,  in  virtue 
of  their  sacred  calling  and  their  superior  educa- 
tion, but  they  were  no  longer  the  masters  they 
had  been. 

The  year  167S  was  an  important  one  in  the  life 
of  the  young  scholar.  In  that  year  he  was  married, 
in  that  year  he  was  settled  over  this  parish,  and  in 
that  year  he  published  a  poem.  It  was  a  "  Funeral 
Elogy,  Upon  that  Patron  of  Virtue,  the  truly  pious, 
peerless  &  matchless  Gentlewoman,  Mrs.  Anne  Brad- 
street."  I  find  in  my  ancestor's  performance  very 
slight  merit,  though  it  gives  indication  of  formal 
training  in  the  stiff  poetic  fashion  of  the  day;  but 
the  enthusiastic  historian  of  American  Literature, 
Professor  Tyler,  who  has  an  eye  for  swans,  discovers 
in  it  "force"  and  "beauty,"  calls  it  "a  sorrowful  and 


IO 


stately  chant,"  and  even  ascribes  "  poetic  genius  "  to 
its  author.  Its  real  interest  is  in  the  proof  that  he 
possessed  a  fair  measure  of  such  culture  as  was 
possible  in  New  England  at  the  time,  and  that  he 
brought  to  Hingham  the  refined  tastes,  the  schol- 
arly disposition,  and  the  literary  sympathies  which 
would  confirm  the  regard  of  his  people  to  him,  and 
could  hardly  fail  to  quicken  their  own  intellectual 
life. 

With    the  new  minister  came    the  thought  of  a 
new  meeting-house.     The  people  had  outgrown  the 
old  house.     The  Indians  had  been  defeated ;  King 
Philip  was  dead;  the  palisado  was  no  longer  needed 
for  defence.    After  long  debate  and  bitter  difference, 
it  was  resolved  to  build  a  new  house  on  a  new  site. 
Human  nature  was  then  much  as  it  is  now.    "  There 
have  been  successively  many  days  of  temptation," 
says   Cotton   Mather,  "in   this   and   that   particular 
plantation  throughout  the   country :  one  while   the 
rebuilding  and  removing  of  meeting-houses  has  un- 
fitted the  neighbors  for  lifting  up  pure  hands  with- 
out wrath  in  those  houses,  and  one  while  the  disposal 
of   little   matters   in   the   militia   has   made  people 
almost  ready  to  fall  upon  one  another  with  force  of 
arms."     Hingham   experienced   both   these  tempta- 
tions.    But  the  good  sense  of  her  people  carried 
them  through  these  trials  without  lasting  harm.    On 
the  26th,  27th,  and  28th  days  of  July  (Old  Style),  16S1, 
the  frame  of   the  new  Meeting-house  was    raised; 
on  the  5th  of   January,   168 1-2,    the  town-meeting 


II 


was  held  for  the  first  time  in  the  completed  house ; 
and  on  the  next  Sunday,  the  8th  of  January,  the 
services  of  public  worship  were  first  held  within  it, 
and  two  infants  were  baptized.  It  had  cost  the  town 
^"430  and  the  old  house.1 

The  building  of  the  new  Meeting-house  was  an 
indication  of  the  prosperity  of  the  people,  and  of 
their  recovery  from  the  losses  and  depression  occa- 
sioned by  King  Philip's  War.  New  England  was 
now  at  peace  ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  her  towns  and 
villages  were  busy  with  their  domestic  concerns,  and 
with  preparation  for  the  struggle  into  which  they 
were  entering  to  maintain  their  political  and  ecclesi- 
astical liberties  against  the  aggressions  of  the  Eng- 
lish Crown.  For  Hingham  these  were  tranquil 
days,  and  cheerful,  in  such  narrow  sense  as  the  word 
retains  when  applied  to  the  life  of  New  England  at 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  —  a  life  for  the 
most  part  grave,  sombre,  austere.  The  interests  of 
the  dwellers  in  a  village  like  Hingham,  though  more 
varied  than  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  inland  settle- 


1  This  was  no  small  sum.  Dr.  Palfrey  seems  to  believe  that  in  1679 
the  value  of  the  personal  property  of  the  whole  Plymouth  Colony  did  not 
amount  to  over  ^12,000.  See  his  History  of  Arew  England,  iii.  215.  The 
sum  required  to  pay  for  the  Meeting-house  was  raised  by  a  rate  made  in 
1680  by  the  selectmen.  The  rate  was  levied  on  one  hundred  and  forty-three 
persons ;  the  smallest  sum  laid  on  any  one  was  five  shillings,  the  largest 
£15  12s.  6d.  See  appendix  to  the  Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln's  Discourse,  delivered 
to  the  First  Parish  in  Hingham,  Sept.  8,  1869,  on  Re-opening  their  Meeting- 
house, pp.  25-28. 

The  minister's  salary  was  ^85.  In  1698  the  rate  made  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  ministry,  school,  poor,  etc.,  was  ^130,  and  the  price  of  grain 
was  fixed  as  follows:  Indian  corn,  y.  per  bushel,  barley,  y.,  rye,  y.  6d.,  and 
oats,  is.  6d.  —  Lincoln's  History  of  Hingham,  p.  89,  note. 


12 


ments,  were  few  and  narrow.  Men  and  women  ap- 
plied themselves  to  their  different  modes  of  rugged 
industry  in  a  sober  and  severe  spirit,  born  of  hard- 
ship and  poverty,  and  of  nature  kindred  to  their  reli- 
gion. Their  recreations  were  scanty  and  infrequent ; 
many  simple  amusements  were  prohibited  by  law, 
others  by  public  opinion.  The  natural  gayety  of 
youth  and  the  pleasant  exhilaration  of  good  spirits 
were  alike  repressed.  It  was  not  because  men  were 
virtuous  that  there  were  neither  cakes  nor  ale,  but  be- 
cause their  religion  had  spoiled  their  taste  for  cakes 
and  ale.  Hardly  one  gay  laugh  of  light-hearted  and 
innocent  mirth  is  heard  in  those  days.  "Once 
hearing  some  of  us  laughing  very  freely,"  writes  the 
Rev.  Nicholas  Noyes,  one  of  the  most  cruel  perse- 
cutors of  the  witches  at  Salem,  in  his  account  of  the 
excellent  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Parker,  —  "once  hear- 
ing some  of  us  laughing  very  freely,  while  I  suppose 
he  was  better  busied  in  his  chamber  above  us,  he 
came  down,  and  gravely  said  to  us :  '  Cousins,  I 
wonder  you  can  be  so  merry,  unless  you  are  sure  of 
your  salvation.' " 

Not  a  song  has  come  down  to  us  from  that  time ; 
not  a  love  poem  ;  not  a  strain  of  secular  music. 
The  elevating  delights  of  the  arts  were  unknown,  and 
the  lack  of  them  unfelt.  The  creative  and  poetic 
imagination  found  scanty  nutriment  in  a  soil  not  yet 
enriched  by  long  human  experience  and  tradition. 

Nature  vainly  displayed  her  ever-renewed  beauty 
to  the  eyes  of  men  and  women  who  saw  in  it  a  snare 


*3 

for  their  souls,  and  regarded  her  as  an  enemy  rather 
than  a  friend.  The  rosy-fingered  dawn  smiled  in 
vain  as  she  mounted  from  the  eastern  sea  over  the 
islands  of  your  bay,  and  the  stars  — 

"Burning  fierce  anthems  to  the  eternal  light"  — a 

rose  ineffectual  save  to  darken  with  intenser  gloom 
the  souls  of  men  who  felt  themselves  fallen  under 
the  curse  of  Adam.  In  the  writings  of  the  first  and 
second  generations  of  the  native-born  New  Engend- 
ers, there  is  scarcely  a  touch  of  genuine  observation 
of  nature,  or  an  indication  of  pleasure  in  her  aspect. 
The  famous  Anne  Bradstreet  sings  of  Philomel 
"  chanting  a  most  melodious  strain  "  on  the  banks 
of  the  Merrimac.  Neither  she  nor  any  of  her  con- 
temporaries had  eyes  for  the  flowers  or  ears  for  the 
birds  of  New  England. 

One  single  passage,  inspired  by  the  homely  nature 
familiar  to  him,  stands  conspicuous  and  beautiful  in 
the  quaint  treatise  2  entitled  "  Phenomena  quaadam 
Apocalyptica ;  or,  some  few  Lines  toward  a  De- 
scription of  the  New  Heaven  as  it  makes  to  those 
who  stand  upon  the  New  Earth,"  of  the  sedate, 
stout-hearted,  provincial  Judge  Sewall.  It  is  like  a 
breath  of  fresh  air,  and  has  a  sparkle  of  the  open 
sunshine.  It  is  a  prophecy  of  the  Christians  of 
Newbury :  — 

1  This  strong  verse  is  from  a  feeble  and  tumid  Funeral  Song  by  Samuel 
Wigglesworth,  the  son  of  the  more  noted  poet,  Mr.  Michael  Wigglesworth. 

2  First  printed  in  1697;  a  second  edition  appeared  in  1727;  this  para- 
graph which  I  cite  is  like  a  white  patch  on  a  black  robe. 


14 

"  As  long  as  Plum  Island  shall  faithfully  keep  the  com- 
manded post,  notwithstanding  all  the  hectoring  words  and 
hard  blows  of  the  proud  and  boisterous  ocean,  as  long 
as  any  salmon  or  sturgeon  shall  swim  in  the  streams  of 
Merrimac,  or  any  perch  or  pickerel  in  Crane  Pond;  as 
long  as  the  sea-fowl  shall  know  the  time  of  their  coming, 
and  not  neglect  seasonably  to  visit  the  places  of  their 
acquaintance ;  as  long  as  any  cattle  shall  be  fed  with  the 
grass  growing  in  the  meadows  that  do  humbly  bow  down 
themselves  before  Turkey  Hill ;  as  long  as  any  sheep  shall 
walk  upon  Old-Town  hills,  and  shall  from  thence  pleasantly 
look  down  upon  the  River  Parker,  and  the  fruitful  marshes 
lying  beneath ;  as  long  as  any  free  and  harmless  doves 
shall  find  a  white-oak  or  other  tree  within  the  township,  to 
perch,  or  feed,  or  build  a  careless  nest  upon,  and  shall 
voluntarily  present  themselves  to  perform  the  office  of 
gleaners  after  barley-harvest;  as  long  as  Nature  shall  not 
grow  old  and  dote,  but  shall  constantly  remember  to  give 
the  rows  of  Indian  corn  their  education  by  pairs,  —  so  long 
shall  Christians  be  born  there,  and  being  first  made  meet, 
shall  from  thence  be  translated  to  be  made  partakers  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light." 

Few  of  his  contemporaries  had  such  open  vision 
as  this  pure,  tender-hearted,  upright  magistrate. 

Temptation  and  danger  lay  around  the  people. 
The  forest  encompassed  them,  giving  shelter  not 
only  to  wild  beasts  but  to  the  Indian  savage.  In 
1676,  in  war-time,  John  Jacob  went  out  with  his 
musket  to  shoot  the  deer  that  trespassed  on  a  field 
of  wheat,  on  what  you  still  call  Glad-Tidings  Plain. 
He  was  found  dead  near  his  father's  house,  killed  by 
the  Indians.  The  next  day  Joseph  Joanes's  and 
Anthony  Sprague's    and    three  other   houses  were 


*5 

burned.  This  was  in  war-time,  but  it  takes  a  long 
while  to  get  rid  of  the  impression  made  upon  the 
fancy,  especially  upon  the  sensitive  fancy  of  child- 
hood, by  such  events  as  these.  Boys  and  girls  durst 
not  venture  to  the  far  end  of  the  pasture  for  berries 
or  for  the  cattle.  Men  carried  their  firelocks  to 
the  hay-field,  and  when  they  strolled  fishing  along 
the  shore. 

But  the  fancy  was  even  more  affected  by  dread  of 
the  spiritual  occupants  of  solitary  places  than  by  fear 
of  wolf  or  Indian.  The  Devil  was  everywhere.  "  No 
place  that  I  know  of,"  says  one  of  the  Boston  preach- 
ers, "  no  place  that  I  know  of  has  got  such  a  spell 
upon  it  as  will  always  keep  the  Devil  out."  "  He  is 
here,  even  in  the  Meeting-house."  "  Go  where  we 
will,  he  is  nigh  unto  us."  There  was  no  saying  what 
form,  familiar  or  strange,  alluring  or  terrifying,  he  or 
his  ministers  might  not  assume,  what  illusion  they 
might  not  practise.  Grave,  pious,  and  learned  men 
fostered  the  belief  in  these  spectral  apparitions.  It 
was  a  common  opinion  that  "  the  devils  had  doubt- 
less felt  a  more  than  ordinary  vexation  from  the 
arrival  of  Christians  in  this  wilderness,"  which  pre- 
viously they  had  occupied  unmolested  by  "the  sacred 
exercises  of  Christianity."  It  was  ten  years  after 
this  Meeting-house  was  built  that  the  devils  dis- 
played their  power  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay,  in 
the  frightful  visitation  of  witchcraft  with  which 
Salem  was  cursed.  Men,  women,  and  children 
gathered  round  the  fireside  at  night  to  scare  them- 


i6 


selves  into  frenzy  with  reports  of  the  deeds  of 
witches,  with  stories  of  spectres  and  signs  and  por- 
tents. In  the  howlings  of  the  wintry  winds  they 
heard  the  voices  of  the  devils  of  the  air.  They  in- 
terpreted every  mishap  as  a  buffet  of  the  Evil  One. 

Ignorance  added  to  their  terrors.  The  native- 
born  New  Englanders  were  less  instructed  than 
the  patriarchs,  men  of  liberal  education  and  wise 
counsel,  who  had  come  from  the  Old  World.  They 
were  farther  from  the  sources  of  enlarged  un- 
derstanding and  liberal  culture.  They  were  no 
longer  borne  onward  by  the  deeper  currents  of  the 
life  of  the  world.  They  had  become  provincial. 
Their  minds  had  narrowed  to  their  fortunes ;  their 
intellectual  interests  were  scanty.  Books  were  few ; 
in  many  households  the  Bible  was  the  only  one. 
Even  the  Minister's  library  was  but  poorly  supplied, 
and  its  shelves  were  for  the  most  part  loaded  with 
treatises  of  controversial  theology.  The  resources 
of  English  literature  were  unknown.  Some  of  the 
chief  glories  of  literature  were  prohibited.  Shake- 
speare was  a  playwright,  the  minister  of  corruption. 
For  a  century  after  the  settlement  of  New  England 
I  find  no  evidence  that  there  was  a  copy  of  Shake- 
speare in  the  colonies.1     Pioneers  and  farmers  have 

1  Of  course  there  are  likely  to  have  been  a  few  copies  in  the  hands  of 
men  not  Puritan  at  heart ;  but  there  is  no  reference  to  his  works,  so  far  as  I 
know,  in  any  New  England  book  of  this  period.  The  student  of  New  Eng- 
land life  would  give  much  for  the  catalogue  of  two  collections  of  books,  the 
first,  the  library  of  Mr.  Winthrop  the  younger,  to  which  Governor  Winthrop 
refers  in  his  History,  under  the  year  1640,  in  a  passage  that  curiously  illus- 
trates the  superstitious  temper  of  the  times,  when  even  the  wisest  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Colony  could  write  :  "  About  this  time  there  fell  out  a  thing  worthy 


17 

little  leisure,  and  less  inclination  to  read.  There 
were  no  newspapers.1  There  were  no  means,  by 
regular  communications  from  distant  places,  of  di- 
verting or  enlarging  the  thoughts.  The  horizon  of 
ideas  was  as  limited  as  the  horizon  of  the  land- 
scape. 

But  the  intelligence  —  stunted,  starved  as  it  might 
be — sought  and  found  nourishment  for  itself,  not  al- 
together healthy,  in  one  important  source.  Religion 
became  the  absorbing  and  permanent  intellectual 
concern.  It  partook  of  the  dryness  of  the  intellec- 
tual life  outside  of  it,  but  it  served  to  keep  alive  the 
minds  of  men.  The  system  of  theology  then  gener- 
ally accepted  was  one  of  the  most  complex  and 
elaborate  bodies  of  doctrine  that  has  ever  been 
devised  by  the  ingenuity  of  subtle  and  vigorous 
thinkers  in  the  attempt  to  frame  a  creed  that  should 
account  for  the  existence  of  the  universe,  the  nature 
of  the  Creator,  and  the  destiny  of  man.  Based 
upon  the  assumption  of  the  absolute  authority  of 
the  Scriptures,  of  the  Old  not  less  than  of  the  New 

of  observation.  Mr.  Winthrop  the  younger,  one  of  the  magistrates,  having 
many  books  in  a  chamber  where  there  was  corn  of  divers  sorts,  had  among 
them  one  wherein  the  Greek  testament,  the  psalms,  and  the  common  prayer 
were  bound  together.  He  found  the  common  prayer  eaten  with  mice,  every 
leaf  of  it,  and  not  any  of  the  two  other  touched,  nor  any  other  of  his  books, 
though  there  were  above  a  thousand."  Savage's  Winthrop,  ed.  1826,  ii.  20. 
The  list  of  this  thousand  volumes  would  show  us  what  books  the  first  settlers 
brought  over.  The  second  catalogue  that  one  might  wish  for  is  that  of  the 
venture  of  books  brought  over  by  John  Dunton  in  1686,  for  sale  in  Boston,  of 
which  he  says,  in  his  entertaining  Life  and  Errors,  that  "they  were  most  of 
them  practical  and  well  suited  to  the  genius  of  New  England."  p.  152. 

1  The  first  Anglo-American  newspaper,  the  Boston  Arews-Letter,  appeared 
on  Monday,  April  24,  1704.  It  was  a  small  folio  half-sheet,  issued  weekly. 
It  contained  little  news,  and  had  a  narrow  circulation. 


Testament,  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  their  complete 
sufficiency  as  a  theory  of  the  universe  and  a  guide 
to  conduct,  the  creed  attempted  to  embody  the  doc- 
trines essential  to  salvation  in  a  series  of  mutually 
dependent  logical  propositions.  In  its  practical  ap- 
plication to  life  it  was  probably  the  most  artificial 
and  the  most  oppressive  creed  that  has  ever  exer- 
cised a  lasting  influence  upon  a  civilized  Christian 
community.  The  fallen  nature  of  man  through 
sin,  the  enmity  of  God  toward  the  human  beings 
he  had  created,  the  responsibility  of  man  and  his 
helplessness  to  free  himself  from  the  curse  de- 
nounced upon  him,  the  damnation  of  infants,  the 
eternal  duration  of  the  torments  of  hell  to  which 
the  vast  majority  of  mankind  were  doomed,  weighed 
with  unrelieved  gloom  upon  the  soul.  There  was 
nothing  to  break  the  force  of  the  tyranny  exercised 
in  the  name  of  religion  over  the  spirits  of  the  men 
and  women  and  children  in  these  regions.  There 
was  no  delivery  from  it.  The  strong  were  subdued, 
the  weak  were  crushed  by  it.  In  his  Diary,  under 
date  of  Jan.  13,  169I,  Judge  Sewall  makes  this 
entry  concerning  his  little  daughter  Betty,  a  girl  of 
fourteen :  — 

"When  I  came  in,  past  7.  at  night,  my  wife  met  me  in 
the  Entry,  and  told  me  Betty  had  surprised  them.  I  was 
surprised  with  the  abruptness  of  the  Relation.  It  seems 
Betty  Sewall  had  given  some  signs  of  dejection  and  sor- 
row; but  a  little  after  diner  she  burst  out  into  an  amazing 
cry,  which  caus'd  all  the  family  to  cry  too ;  Her  Mother 
ask'd  the  reason ;    she  gave  none ;    at  last   said   she  was 


*9 

afraid  she  should  goc  to  Hell,  her  Sins  were  not  pardon'd. 
She  was  first  wounded  by  my  reading  a  Sermon  of  Mr. 
Norton's  about  the  5-  of  Jan.  Text  Jn-  7.34,  Ye  shall  seek 
me  and  shall  not  find  me.  And  those  words  in  the  Ser- 
mon, Jn-  8.  21,  Ye  shall  seek  me  and  shall  die  in  your 
sins,  ran  in  her  mind,  and  terrified  her  greatly.  And  stay- 
ing at  home  Jan.  12,  she  read  out  of  Mr.  Cotton  Mather — 
Why  hath  Satan  filled  thy  heart,  which  increas'd  her  Fear. 
Her  Mother  ask'd  her  whether  she  pray'd.  She  answer'd, 
Yes ;  but  feared  her  prayers  were  not  heard  because  her 
Sins  not  pardon'd.  Mr.  Willard  [the  minister]  though 
sent  for  timelyer  .  .  .  came  not  till  after  I  came  home. 
He  discoursed  with  Betty  who  could  not  give  a  distinct 
account,  but  was  confused  as  his  phrase  was,  and  as  had 
experienced  in  himself.  Mr.  Willard  pray'd  excellently. 
The  Lord  bring  Light  and  Comfort  out  of  this  dark  and 
dreadful  cloud,  and  grant  that  Christ's  being  formed  in 
my  dear  child,  may  be  the  issue  of  these  painful  pangs."  1 

Such  a  domestic  picture,  impressive  as  it  is,  is  but 
a  feeble  illustration  of  deeper  unrecorded  agonies. 

The  gentlest  preacher  must  deliver  from  the  pul- 
pit the  harsh  teaching  of  his  creed.  Mr.  Norton  is 
reported  to  have  been  of  a  mild  spirit,  and  to  have 
possessed  an  amiable  disposition,  but  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  failed  in  orthodoxy  or 
softened  the  stern  features  of  Calvinistic   doctrine.2 

1  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  Collections.     Fifth  Series,  v.  419. 

2  Only  one  of  his  sermons  during  his  long  pastorate  of  thirty-seven 
years  was  printed.  It  was  an  Election  Sermon  delivered  on  May  26,  170S. 
"  Such  an  occasion,"  says  Hawthorne,  "  formed  an  honorable  epoch  in  the 
life  of  a  New  England  clergyman."  Sewall's  entry  in  his  Diary  concerning 
the  sermon  is  amusing  and  instructive:  "Midweek,  May  26,  170S.  Mr.  Jno. 
Norton  preaches  a  Flattering  Sermon  as  to  the  Governour."  "May  27.  I 
was  with  a  Comittee  in  the  morn,  .  .  .  and  so  by  God's  good  providence 
absent  when  Mr.  Corwin  and  Gushing  were  order'd  to  Thank  Mr.  Norton  for 
his  sermon  and  desire  a  Copy."  The  sermon,  printed  under  the  title  of  An 
Essay  tending to  promote  Education,  contains  some  praise  of  Governor  Dud- 


20 


The  faith  he  held  and  taught  made  life  and  death 
alike  awful.  It  did  not  console,  it  did  not  cheer. 
It  alarmed,  it  quenched  gladness,  it  destroyed  con- 
fidence, it  all  but  destroyed  hope ;  it  invigorated 
but  with  the  invigoration  of  fear.  I  do  not  draw  an 
exaggerated  outline.  The  one  book  produced  in  the 
seventeenth  century  in  New  England  that  attained 
a  real  popularity  was  the  poem  called  "  The  Day  of 
Doom  "  of  Mr.  Michael  Wigglesworth,  the  worthy 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Maiden,  who  has  recently 
been  described  as  "one  of  the  most  honored,  emi- 
nent, and  useful  men  of  the  early  years  of  Massa- 
chusetts." "  The  Day  of  Doom  "  was  first  printed 
in  1662,  and  it  is  stated  that  eighteen  hundred 
copies  were  sold  within  a  single  year.1  But  this 
did  not  satisfy  the  demand.  Edition  after  edition 
was  called  for,  the  sixth  appearing  in  Boston  in 
1 716.  It  was  besides  twice  reprinted  in  England. 
The  book  is  of  no  worth  as  poetry  ;  the  verse  is 
mere  doggerel ;  there  is  not  a  touch  of  poetic  fancy, 
not  a  gleam  of  imagination  in  it.     It  is  a  description 

ley  which  was  naturally  distasteful  to  the  Judge,  who  stood  in  manful  oppo- 
sition to  Dudley's  policy;  but  it  is  in  other  respects  a  creditable  discourse, 
mainly  directed  against  the  prevailing  unbelief.  "Our  degeneracy,"  said  the 
preacher,  "is  too  palpable  to  be  denied,  too  gross  to  be  excused."  "The 
longer  Judgment  is  delayed,  the  heavier  it  will  be  when  it  cometh.  It  shall 
come;  it  hath  sometime  Leaden  feet,  but  Iron  hands." 

Two  years  afterward,  March  26,  1710,  Judge  Sewall  "went  to  Hingham 
to  Meeting,  heard  Mr.  Norton  from  Psal.  145.  18.  Setting  forth  the  Propi- 
tiousness  of  God.  In  the  afternoon  Lydia  Gushing  &  Paul  Lewis  were  bap- 
tized. Din'd  with  Major  Thaxter,  Sup'd  with  Mr.  Norton,  Mrs.  Norton,  & 
their  sister  Shepard." 

1  Tyler's  History  of  Ajnerican  Literature,  ii.  34.  This  sale,  says  Pro- 
fessor Tyler,  "implies  the  purchase  of  a  copy  by  at  least  every  thirty-fifth 
person  in  New  England,  —  an  example  of  the  commercial  success  of  a  book 
never  afterward  equalled  in  this  country." 


21 


of  the  Day  of  Judgment  in  coarse,  realistic  strokes, 
exhibiting  the  common  belief  concerning  the  moral 
government  of  God,  his  relations  to  his  creatures, 
and  his  final  judgment  of  them.  Nothing  could  be 
of  greater  value  as  an  illustration  of  the  dominant 
superstition,  as  a  measure  of  the  popular  culture. 
No  more  cruel  and  detestable  picture  was  ever 
drawn  under  the  pretence  of  exalting  the  justice 
of  the  Almighty.  The  character  attributed  to  the 
Supreme  Being  is  perhaps  as  outrageous  and  ex- 
ecrable as  a  good  man  ever  ascribed  to  the  object 
of  his  adoration.  The  work  is  a  marvel  of  the  per- 
version of  piety  and  intelligence.  Superstition 
more  gross  never  sheltered  itself  under  the  garb  of 
Christian  doctrine.  And  yet  it  was  the  accepted 
expression  of  the  prevailing  creed  in  New  England 
at  the  time  this  Meeting-house  was  built. 

The  morality  exacted  by  this  creed  could  be  at- 
tained by  few.  In  the  wrestlings  with  sin,  omnipo- 
tence seemed  often  on  the  side  of  the  Devil.  What 
agonies  of  heart,  what  terrors  of  conscience,  what 
miseries  of  contrition  were  the  lot  of  many  a  pure 
and  innocent  soul !  Into  what  hardness  of  heart, 
what  narrowness  of  sympathy,  what  perversion  of 
judgment,  what  pride  of  self-righteousness,  were  not 
even  good  men  in  danger  of  falling !  To  what  in- 
difference to  sin,  what  recklessness  of  conduct,  what 
self-abandonment,  was  not  many  a  light-hearted  spirit 
driven  through  inability  to  master  a  passing  tempta- 
tion ! 


22 


It  was  just  after  Mr.  Norton's  settlement,  about 
two  years  before  this  Meeting-house  was  built,  that 
a  Synod  of  the  churches  was  called  in  Boston  to 
consider  "  What  are  the  evils  that  have  provoked 
the  Lord  to  bring  his  judgments  on  New  England," 
and  "  What  is  to  be  done,  that  so  these  evils  may 
be  reformed."  It  was  acknowledged  that  there  was 
degeneracy  in  New  England,  "  that  people  had 
begun  notoriously  to  forget  the  errand  into  the 
wilderness,"  that  "  the  enchantments  of  this  world 
caused  the  rising  generation  to  forget  the  inter- 
ests of  religion,"  and  that  consequently  "  that  God 
hath  a  controversy  with  his  New  England  peo- 
ple is  undeniable,  the  Lord  having  written  his  dis- 
pleasure in  dismal  characters  against  us."  "  It  is 
sadly  evident,"  said  the  Reforming  Synod,  "  that 
there  are  visible  evils  manifest  which  without  doubt 
the  Lord  is  provoked  by."  There  is  great  decay 
of  the  power  of  Godliness  amongst  many  professors 
in  these  churches.  Pride  both  spiritual  and  in 
apparel  doth  abound,  even  among  the  poorer  sort 
of  people.  Church  fellowship  and  other  divine  in- 
stitutions are  greatly  neglected.  There  is  great 
profaneness.  There  is  much  sabbath-breaking. 
There  is  much  amiss  in  what  concerns  families  and 
the  government  thereof.  There  are  sinful  heats 
and  hatreds,  evil  surmisings,  backbitings,  lawsuits. 
There  is  much  intemperance ;  the  heathenish  and 
idolatrous  practise  of  health-drinking  is  too  fre- 
quent.    There  are  heinous  breaches  of  the  seventh 


commandment,  and  the  temptations  thereunto  are 
become  too  common,  such  as  immodest  apparel, 
laying  out  of  hair,  borders  .  .  .  mixed  dancings, 
light  behavior,  unlawful  gaming,  abundance  of  idle- 
ness. There  is  much  want  of  truth  anions:  men. 
There  is  inordinate  affection  unto  the  world,  shewn 
in  covetousness ;  farms  and  merchandising  beinsr 
preferred  before  the  things  of  God.  "  In  this  respect 
the  interest  of  New  England  seemeth  to  be  changed. 
We  differ  from  other  outgoings  of  our  nation,  in 
that  it  was  not  any  worldly  considerations  that 
brought  our  fathers  into  this  wilderness,  but  religion, 
even  that  so  they  might  build  a  sanctuary  unto  the 
Lord's  name,  whereas  now  religion  is  made  subser- 
vient unto  worldly  interests."  There  hath  been 
opposition  to  the  work  of  reformation.  Sin  and 
sinners  have  many  advocates.  A  public  spirit  is 
greatly  wanting  in  the  most  of  men.  And,  finally, 
there  are  sins  against  the  Gospel,  whereby  the  Lord 
has  been  provoked.1 

Such  in  brief  is  the  indictment  brought  against 
the  people  by  the  clergy.  It  is  evidence  of  the 
strength  of  resistance  of  human  nature  against  a 
strict  ecclesiastical  system,  against  overstrained  de- 
mands in  the  name  of  religion.  That  there  had 
been  a  decay  of  the  ancient  piety  is  no  doubt  true, 
but  we  are  not  to  accept  these  charges  against  the 
community  as  evidence  of  general  depravity.     Even 

1  Mather's  Magnolia,  book  v.  part  4,  is  devoted  to  this  Reforming  Synod, 
"with  subsequent  essays  of  reformation  in  the  Churches." 


24 

the  divines  of  the  time  did  not  all  of  them  consent 
that  the  backsliding  of  the  people  of  God  in  this 
land  had  been  so  great.  Cotton  Mather,  for  ex- 
ample, in  introducing  the  account  of  this  Synod  in 
his  "  Magnalia,"  declares,  "  the  most  impartial  ob- 
servers must  have  acknowledged  that  there  was 
proportionably  still  more  of  true  religion,  and  a 
larger  number  of  the  strictest  saints  in  this  country 
than  in  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  But 
this  solemn  testimony  of  the  ministers  against  the 
sins  of  the  people  had  a  real  foundation  in  the  ten- 
dency of  the  time,  adverse  to  the  former  strictness 
of  church  order.  The  gradual  relaxation  of  ecclesi- 
astical severities  in  Massachusetts  was  accompanied 
by  some  real  as  well  as  apparent  laxity  of  morals. 
Mr.  Norton  may  have  had  occasion  within  these 
walls  to  warn  your  ancestors  and  mine  against 
the  sins  which  the  Synod  rebuked,  and  to  lament 
their  lukewarmness  of  spirit  and  the  lack  of  the 
ancient  piety.  It  is  apt  to  look  from  the  pulpit  as 
if  the  earth  were  growing  darker,  such  is  the  con- 
trast at  all  times  between  the  ideal  and  the  actual 
conduct  of  life.  Let  us  hope  that  he  and  his  people 
sometimes  found  in  the  Gospel  consoling  truths, 
ministering  comfort  and  hope,  of  which  not  the 
degeneracy  of  the  times  nor  the  character  of  their 
faith  could  deprive  them. 

False,  oppressive,  as  the  creed  of  New  England 
had  been  and  then  was,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  it 
nurtured  precious  virtues.      From    the    rock    itself 


25 

sprang  living  waters.  The  creed  was  the  produc- 
tion of  men  of  independent  souls,  of  resolved  pur- 
pose, of  moral  integrity.  It  bred  men  of  like  temper. 
It  was  the  creed  of  political  independents,  and  of 
republican  institutions.  The  seed  of  liberty  lay  in 
it.  The  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man  brought  all  men 
on  a  level.  King,  priest,  the  noble,  the  rich,  were 
sinners  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  no  less  than  the 
poor  and  the  humble.  God  is  no  respecter  of  per- 
sons was  its  first  lesson.  It  was  no  creed  of  mere 
authority  to  be  believed  because  incredible.  Irra- 
tional as  it  was  it  addressed  the  reason  no  less  than 
the  conscience.  It  required  discussion  and  dis- 
crimination. It  opened  the  way  to  endless  contro- 
versy. The  Bible,  the  Word  of  God,  was  its  source, 
but  the  reason  must  be  appealed  to  for  the  right 
interpretation  of  that  Word.  Many  false  premises 
were  taken  for  granted,  many  false  conclusions 
drawn  from  them.  But  the  argument  was  an  exer- 
cise of  the  reasoning  faculty.  Wits  were  sharpened 
in  theological  disputation  for  use  in  other  debates. 
Thought  slowly  won  its  freedom  ;  and  freedom  led 
to  truth.  Freedom  of  mind  is  the  prerequisite  of 
free  institutions;  Theology  was  close  akin  to  poli- 
tics. History  as  well  as  doctrine  was  studied  in  the 
Old  Testament.  When,  in  1683,  Edward  Ran- 
dolph, the  arch-enemy  of  Massachusetts,  was  de- 
parting for  England  to  give  his  aid  toward  vacating 
the  Charter  of  the  Colony,  the  old  patriot  and 
Deputy-Governor,  Thomas  Danforth,  addressed  him 


26 


a  brief  letter  of  warning,  with  references  to  appro- 
priate passages  in  Genesis,  Exodus,  and  the  Acts.1 
It  was  characteristic  of  the  mode  of  thought  and 
argument  of  the  times.  The  faith  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritan,  while  debasing  him  before  the  Lord, 
gave  him  virtue  to  stand  before  tyrants. 

From  the  beginning  their  religion,  their  manner 
of  life,  the  wilderness  which  they  were  compelled  to 
conquer,  the  institutions  which  they  established  and 
maintained,  were  preparing  the  colonists  to  become 
the  founders  of  the  mightiest  empire  of  self-governed 
men  that  the  world  has  seen.  And  during  the 
whole  course  of  Colonial  history,  the  meeting-house 
—  the  house  for  the  town-meeting  as  well  as  for  the 
worship  of  God  —  was  the  central  hearth  of  light 
and  warmth  for  the  little  world  of  each  community. 

At  length,  in  1716,  after  thirty-seven  years  of 
ministry,  the  old  pastor,  of  whom  so  little  is  known, 
but  whose  praise  is  in  the  tranquillity  of  his  long 
term  of  service,  was  gathered  to  the  fathers.  Some 
time  passed  before  his  successor  was  chosen ;  but 
in  June,  1718,  a  young  graduate  of  Harvard  College,2 
Ebenezer  Gay,  not  yet  twenty-two  years  old,  was 
ordained  in  this  house,  and  here  for  almost  seventy 
years  did  this  good  man  preach.  He  was  ninety 
years  old  when,  on  a  Sunday  morning,  as  he  was 
preparing  for  the  usual  public  services  of  the  day, 

1  The  letter  may  be  found  in  Palfrey,  History  of  New  England,  iii.  375. 

2  Of  the  class  of  17 14;  a  class  of  eleven  members,  of  whom  four  were 
natives  of  Hingham,  one  of  them  being  a  grandson  of  Mr.  Hobart,  the  first 
minister. 


27 

death  came  to  him.  His  pastorate,  and  that  of  his 
predecessor,  stretch  over  a  hundred  years,  from  the 
dark  days  of  the  vacating  of  the  Old  Charter  of 
Massachusetts,  and  the  tyranny  of  Andros,  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Independence  of  America  and 
the  adoption  of  the  National  Constitution.  Hing- 
ham  had  borne  her  little  part,  not  without  credit, 
through  the  century ;  and  she  owes  lasting  gratitude 
to  these  venerable  teachers  who,  generation  after 
generation,  devoted  themselves  to  the  training  of 
her  sons  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  that  so  they 
might  do  good  service  to  their  land. 

One  figure  stands  specially  notable  as  represen- 
tative of  Hingham  during  the  years  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  foundation  of  the  Republic,  —  that  of 
General  Benjamin  Lincoln.  The  Lincolns  are  of 
the  original  stock  of  the  town,  and  there  is  no  need 
to  recount  here,  where  the  story  is  familiar,  what 
credit  they  have  done  to  it  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  In  this  Meeting-house,  in  1733,  Benja- 
min Lincoln,  son  of  Benjamin,  was  baptized  by  Dr. 
Gay.  He  was  brought  up  under  this  pulpit,  and  it 
is  not  venturing  too  much  to  ascribe  a  share  of  his 
qualities  to  the  influence  of  the  disposition  and  dis- 
course of  his  learned,  liberal,  kindly,  and  devout 
minister  and  friend.  Lincoln's  character  bears  the 
true  New  England  stamp.  He  had  the  virtues  of 
a  simple,  sturdy,  self-respecting  community.  He 
was  the  foremost  man  of  the  town,  because  in  him 
the  best  qualities  of  her  people   found   fullest  ex- 


28 


pression.  He  was  not  a  man  of  genius  either  in 
field  or  council,  but  he  had  that  saving  common- 
sense  which  is  the  intelligence  of  the  community 
concentrated  in  an  individual.  "  I  entertain  a  very 
high  opinion  of  his  judgment  and  abilities,"  wrote 
Washington  at  an  early  period  of  their  acquaint- 
ance. "  He  is  an  active,  spirited,  sensible  man." 
He  was  in  truth  all  this  and  more.  Washington 
himself  was  not  of  purer  integrity,  nor  of  completer 
self-possession.  Neither  elated  by  success  nor  de- 
pressed by  defeat,  steady  under  either  fortune,  free 
from  jealousy  and  selfish  ambition,  cordial  in  spirit, 
kindly  in  temper,  he  discharged  faithfully  and  with 
honor  every  duty  with  which  he  was  intrusted ;  and 
devoting  all  his  faculties  to  his  country's  cause,  he 
rendered  her  service  that  will  make  his  name  im- 
mortal in  her  annals.  I  like  to  dwell  on  the  life 
of  this  honest  farmer  of  Hingham,  who  rose  to  the 
level  of  high  duties  on  a  great  stage,  performing 
them  simply  as  he  would  have  performed  those  of 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  or  member  of  the  Great  and 
General  Gourt.  He  embodies  the  plain,  substantial 
excellence  of  the  New  England  village,  the  child  of 
the  meeting-house  and  the  school,  —  no  hero  but 
a  well  grown  man.1 

1  Mr.  Norton  here  interrupted  himself  to  read  the  following  letter,  which 
he  gave  to  the  town  to  be  preserved  in  the  Public  Library:  — 

Watertown,  July  29,  1775. 

Gentlemen  : —  When  I  accepted  a  seat  at  the  Council  Board,  I  moved  in 
the  House  that  a  precept  might  go  out,  empowering  the  Town  of  Hingham 
to  send  another  member  to  ye  General  Court.  The  request  was  granted ; 
and  I  here  inclose  to  you  the  precept.  I  hope  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Town 
of  Hingham  &  ye  District  of  Cohassett  will  improve  the  priviledge. 


29 

The  theology  of  Dr.  Gay  was  of  a  milder  type 
than  that  of  his  predecessor.  The  conditions  of 
life  in  the  older  settlements  of  the  country,  like 
Hingham,  were  adverse  to  the  literal  harshness  of 
the  still  nominally  accepted  creed.  Without  vio- 
lence of  disruption,  without  intermission  of  devout 
service,  without  recognition  of  any  special  moment 
of  change,  the  faith  of  the  community  became  less 
and  less  technically  orthodox,  was  less  rigid  in  ad- 
herence to  the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism,  and  shaped 
itself  gradually  into  conformity  with  the  genial  tem- 
per of  a  people  that  was  becoming  strong  and  pros- 
perous, less  anxious  and  more  confident  in  itself, 
from  decade  to  decade.  The  standards  of  morality 
became  more  rational.  Men  might  wear  their  hair 
short  or  long,  as  it  pleased  them,  without  sin.  They 
had  begun  to  laugh  and  to  dance,  though  still  with 
some  rigidity  of  feature  and  awkwardness  of  limb. 

Altho'  Gentlemen,  I  am  removed  from  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
therefore  am  not  considered  as  your  particular  representative  in  General 
Court,  yet  y'  will  not  remove  from  my  mind  the  great  obligations  I  am  under 
to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Hingham  &  ye  District  of  Cohasset,  nor 
will  it  discharge  me  from  the  duty  I  owe  them,  or  lessen  ye  concern  I  have 
to  promote  their  best  interest  so  far  as  my  small  ability  shall  enable  me  to 
do  it,  —  for  I  consider  that  it  is  partly  owing  to  their  favourable  notice  of  me 
that  I  have  been  brot  into  public  view — I  recollect  with  gratitude  that  they 
have  conferred  upon  me  most  if  not  all  the  places  of  honour  &  trust  that 
were  in  their  power  to  give. 

That  they  have  kindly  accepted  my  small  services  when  I  have  been  em- 
ployed by  them,  &  have  been  disposed  not  to  exaggerate  my  many  faults 
&  imperfections,  but  on  ye  other  hand  have  discovered  a  disposition  at  all 
times  to  draw  a  vail  over  them  —  to  be  forgetfull  of  or  silent  with  regard  to 
such  notice,  respect  &  tenderness  would  argue  want  of  gratitude,  and  crimi- 
nal inattention  or  great  insensibility. 

I  am  Gentlemen  with  great  esteem  for  you,  y*  Town  &  District  your 
most  obliged,  obedient,  &  Hume  Servant. 

Benj.  Lincoln. 

To  ye  Gentlemen  Selectmen  of  Hingham  &  Cohassett. 


3° 

General  Lincoln  was  a  devout  Christian  of  the 
new  type;  and  when  in  1787  Henry  Ware  suc- 
ceeded Dr.  Gay  in  this  parish,  Lincoln,  thirty  years 
his  senior,  was  in  sympathy  with  the  liberal  views 
of  the  young  minister,  and  a  friendship  grew  up 
between  them,  founded  on  mutual  respect  and  con- 
formity of  religious  opinion. 

Mr.  Ware  was  a  worthy  follower,  in  purity  of 
character,  in  learning,  and  in  intelligence,  of  his 
three  predecessors;  but  when  in  1805  he  was  called 
to  Harvard  College,  although  he  had  occupied  this 
pulpit  for  eighteen  years,  his  pastorate  was  less 
than  half  as  long  as  the  shortest  of  the  preceding 
ministries. 

In  1806  the  Rev.  Joseph  Richardson  was  or- 
dained to  succeed  him.  Differences  of  religious 
opinion,  as  well  as  personal  differences,  attended  his 
settlement,  and  a  portion  of  the  parish  withdrew 
to  form  a  new  society.  In  the  course  of  years  the 
differences  have  disappeared,  and  the  two  societies 
recognize  their  common  faith  and  history,  and  take  an 
almost  equal  pride  in  the  Old  Meeting-house.  With 
various  interruptions,  occasioned  by  the  part  he  took 
in  public  life,  as  well  as  by  ill-health,  Mr.  Richard- 
son remained  Minister  of  this  parish  until  ten  years 
ago,  when  at  the  age  of  almost  ninety-four,  his  death 
closed  a  pastoral  term  of  more  than  sixty-five  years. 
In  1855  the  Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln,  himself  a  descend- 
ant of  Peter  Hobart,  was  settled  as  Associate  Pastor, 
and  to-day  we  are  gladdened  by  his  venerable  pres- 


\ 


3i 

encc,  and  salute  in  him  the  sixth  in  that  line  of 
eminent  and  faithful  servants  of  the  people  of  the 
Lord,  whose  record  is  the  story  and  the  commen- 
dation of  Hinsfham  for  two  centuries  and  a  half.1 

Such  a  record  is  unmatched,  so  far  as  I  know, 
in  the  annals  of  New  England.  There  is  a  peculiar 
and  pleasing  correspondence  between  the  perma- 
nence of  this  house  and  the  long  duration  of  the  ser- 
vice of  each  of  those  who  have  ministered  within 
it.  The  changes  in  the  house  itself,  since  it 
was  erected,  typify  the  changes  in  the  creed  of  the 
preachers.  It  has  been  enlarged  since  its  first  con- 
struction, as  if  in  accord  with  the  more  comprehen- 
sive scheme  of  salvation.  Its  inner  structure  has 
more  than  once  been  made  more  commodious,  as 
if  to  typify  the  greater  spiritual  comfort  of  the  doc- 
trine delivered  from  the  desk.  Sixty  years  ago  it 
was  warmed  for  the  first  time  in  the  winter  season, 
as  if  a  milder  and  more  genial  heat  was  required,  as 
the  flames  died  away  in  that  dismal  place  where, 
according  to  Mr.  Michael  Wigglesworth,  — 

"  God's  fierce  ire  kindleth  the  fire, 
And  vengeance  feeds  the  flame 
With  piles  of  wood,  and  brimstone  flood, 
That  none  can  quench  the  same." 

But  as  the  Old  Meeting-house  still  stands  essen- 
tially the  same,  so  in  spite  of  differences  of  form 

1  A  few  weeks  after  the  delivery  of  this  address  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lincoln 
died.  He  was  nearly  eighty-two  years  old,  and  was  struck  down  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  services  on  Sept.  8,  1881,  the  day  appointed  for  prayer  for 
the  recovery  of  President  Garfield. 


32 

and  statement  of  belief,  in  spite  of  differences  of 
moral  judgment  and  spiritual  aim,  the  congrega- 
tion gathers  here  from  week  to  week  with  essen- 
tially the  same  purpose  as  that  which  brought  our 
forefathers  to  this  house,  —  namely,  to  be  instructed 
in  the  truth  and  to  study  to  be  good.  A  continu- 
ous spiritual  life  runs  through  the  centuries,  and 
here  its  continuity  is  most  deeply  felt,  for  here  in 
each  generation  have  high  ideals  been  quickened, 
pure  resolves  animated,  and  all  that  was  best  in  the 
hearts  and  souls  of  the  men  and  women  of  this 
town  cherished,  strengthened,  and  confirmed. 

The  record  of  recent  years  is  no  less  significant 
of  the  worth  of  the  lessons  received  here  than  that 
of  the  earlier  time.  There  are  associations  belong- 
ing to  this  house,  within  the  remembrance  of  those 
still  young  among  you,  that  shall  help  to  confirm 
the  character  of  the  latest  generation  of  worshippers 
that  shall  gather  here.  Twenty  years  ago  many  a 
youth  went  out  from  yonder  door  to  meet  danger 
and  death  with  a  high  heart.  Here  America, 
through  your  lips,  Reverend  Sir,  appealed  in  the 
name  of  religion  to  her  sons,  and  did  not  appeal 
in  vain.  Here,  when  the  storm  of  war  had  ceased, 
the  town  gathered  to  mourn  and  to  honor,  not  only 
her  own  dead  sons,  but  him,  revered,  beloved  of 
the  whole  nation,  him  beyond  praise,  him  of  the 
Hingham  name,  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  here,  but 
six  years  ago,  the  town  assembled  once  more  to 
offer  its  tribute  of  undying  honor  to  its  own  great 


33 


citizen,  the  man  worthy  to  be  named  in  the  same 
breath  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  —  John  Albion  An- 
drew. Such  associations  as  these,  such  memories, 
are  the  live  coals  on  the  altar  to  kindle  virtuous 
aspiration  into  flaming  achievement. 

Who  shall  ever  enter  this  house  hereafter  in 
times  of  stress,  when  the  State  calls  on  her  children 
for  sacrifice  of  private  interests  to  public  service, 
without  recalling  the  resplendent  example  of  An- 
drew, and  drawing  inspiration  from  his  magnani- 
mous devotion  to  the  cause  of  humanity  and  liberty  ? 
His  was  a  manly  nature.  You  remember  him,  — 
the  cheerful  neighbor,  the  lover  of  children,  the 
friend  of  the  poor,  the  comforter  of  those  in  trou- 
ble, the  man  of  simple  tastes,  the  lover  of  nature 
and  of  poetry ;  with  sympathies  quick  as  light,  with 
feelings  warm  as  a  mother's  heart ;  ardent  and  im- 
petuous in  spirit,  ready  in  counsel,  prompt  in  deci- 
sion ;  the  Puritan  in  the  blamelessness  of  his  life, 
the  latitudinarian  in  the  breadth  of  his  charity,  the 
Cavalier  in  the  dash  of  his  charge,  the  Roundhead 
in  his  faith  in  God  and  in  the  keeping  his  powder 
dry,  and  in  every  attitude  and  action  the  good  citi- 
zen, the  sound,  large-hearted  man.  You  remember  — 
for  was  he  not  yours  by  adoption  ?  —  how  naturally 
he  grew  up  to  the  foremost  place  in  the  State ;  by 
what  open  and  honest  means  he  won  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth ;  how  he 
scorned  subterfuge  and  the  devious  arts  of  trading 
politicians ;  how  the  people  recognized  in  him  the 


34 

embodiment  and  expression  of  their  own  best  sen- 
timent and  purpose.  No  Governor  ever  stood  a 
more  complete  representative  of  his  State  than 
John  A.  Andrew  stood  during  the  years  of  war. 
For  the  moment  he  and  Massachusetts  were  one. 
As  the  great  heart  of  the  generous  new  West  beat 
in  the  breast  of  Lincoln,  so  the  great  heart  of  the 
older  East  answered  sympathetically  to  it  in  the 
pulses  of  Andrew.  From  the  first  call  of  the  war 
until  the  last  he  was  always  in  the  front ;  and 
when  the  war  was  over  his  liberal  hand  was  the 
first  to  be  held  out,  with  hearty  and  frank  confi- 
dence, to  the  enemy  against  whom  he  had  fought 
so  strenuously.  He  gave  his  life  to  his  country, 
and  in  the  bugle  notes  over  his  grave  were  heard 
the  laments  of  the  Union,  South  and  North,  blend- 
ing in  sorrow  for  the  friend  of  all  mankind, —  "for 
behold  the  Lord  had  taken  away  the  stay  and  the 
staff,  the  mighty  man  and  the  man  of  war,  the 
judge,  and  the  prophet,  and  the  prudent,  and 
the  honorable  man,  and  the  counsellor,  and  the 
eloquent  orator." 

In  your  Excellency's  [Governor  Long]  interest- 
ing sketch  of  the  life  of  Governor  Andrew,  in  the 
volume  which  records  the  services  and  sacrifices  of 
the  sons  of  Hingham  for  the  cause  of  Freedom  and 
Union,  you  have  spoken  of  the  worth  of  his  exam- 
ple for  future  generations.  It  is,  indeed,  an  example 
for  times  of  prosperity  and  peace,  no  less  than  for 
those  of  adversity  and  war.     It  is  the  virtue  of  a 


35 

great  character  to  be  of  universal  service,  to  help 
men  in  ordinary  as  well  as  in  exceptional  occasions. 
For  the  village  Hampden,  or  the  hero  who  reads 
his  history  in  a  nation's  eyes,  follows  but  one  and 
the  same  path,  the  narrow  path  of  duty,  which 
sometimes  may  become  the  path  of  glory,  but  which 
for  the  most  part  is  simply  the  path  of  every-day 
life.  This  path,  trodden  by  the  common  men  and 
women  of  every  period,  is  the  thread  of  light  run- 
ning unbroken  through  the  past  up  to  the  present 
hour.  Creeds  change,  temptations  differ,  old  land- 
marks are  left  behind,  new  perils  confront  us,  but 
always  the  needle  points  to  the  North  Star,  and 
always  are  some  common  men  and  women  follow- 
ing its  guidance.  And  this  is  what  unites  us  in 
spiritual  relationship  with  those  ancestors  of  ours 
from  whom  we  are  parted  so  widely  in  faith,  in 
knowledge,  and  in  manners,  and  whose  remoteness 
from  us  is  marked,  not  so  much  by  astonishing  dif- 
ference in  material  circumstances,  as  by  changes  in 
thought  and  belief.  They  will  not  disown  us  for 
their  children  so  long  as  we  do  our  duty  faithfully, 
as  they  did  theirs.  They  fought  a  good  fight  with 
the  devils  of  adversity  and  hardship ;  it  is  for  us 
to  fight  with  the  devils  of  prosperity  and  ease. 
The  aspect  of  the  battle  has  changed,  but  the  bat- 
tle still  goes  on.  They  have  entered  into  rest ;  we 
are  in  the  heat  of  work.  May  our  work  be  not  less 
strenuous,  not  less  deserving  to  endure  than  theirs ; 
so  that  when  this  day  shall  be  the  past  of  two  hun- 


36 

dred  years,  and  our  children's  children  shall  gather 
here  again,  to  seek  fresh  invigoration  for  the  per- 
formance of  duty,  they  may  find  it  in  our  exam- 
ple as  well  as  in  that  of  our  elders,  and  say  as 
we  say,  — 

"  Let  the  Work  of  our  Fathers  stand  ! " 


